November 6-12, 2003

first friday focus

James Brantley (with the Brandywine Workshop), Maiden Voyage (2003), 15 inches by 18 inches, offset lithograph and silkscreen.

by Lori Hill

Painted Bride

Artist Karen Fiorito uses the style of old propaganda posters with characters like Uncle Sam and inserts text like "Military Terrorist Industrial Complex: Manufacturing Consent Since 1945." So goes most of the work in the Painted Bride's new show, "Say Something: The Art of Politics" -- artists using often vintage materials and techniques to examine, and take to task, modern political policies and social struggles. Charmaine Caire creates tableaux with old toys and dolls, then photographs them, making for strange juxtapositions -- a brain on a military tank, for instance. Sculptor H.D. Ivey and painter Don Colley contribute work, along with Leroy Johnson (dark shadow boxes) and Adelaide Paul (odd ceramic works concerned with animal issues). But curator Cavin Jones' painting of a young black boy being hauled away by police officers might be the most powerful work in the show. The boy and the officers are in vivid color, but the gathering crowd on either side is rendered in black and white and looks straight out of the civil rights era. Everyone seems frightened. (First Friday also marks another Day of the Poet starting at 9 p.m., this time featuring Reg e. Gains and the Great Pronoun Showdown.)

Reception Fri., Nov. 7, 5-7 p.m. Exhibition runs through Jan. 10, 230 Vine St., 215-925-9914.

Ashley Gallery

Most of the artists in the "Winter Phantasm" show are Ashley regulars, and the work is typically figural and moving. Bill Miller's nearly three-dimensional linoleum collages return; his works have the impression of cutout wooden kids' puzzles -- the chunky pieces fit into large holes. In one, a lettuce-headed woman stares out from a hot-pink speckled ground; in another, a bowl of fruit sits sadly by a window. Sheep Jones' lovely, hollow houses, whether on a fiery red or charcoal gray ground, look paper-thin and delicate. The letters "open nope" are repeated across the top, above the dark house on one of the square canvases. An older, angrier, darker Alice inhabits CM Dupré's mystical paintings. Her doll-like face seems to haunt Dupré, along with Wonderland figures like the Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit. Pittsburgh artist Joe Small, new to the gallery, contributes a sketchy, pensive self-portrait in simple, muted colors, while John David's orange-red palette returns in full force, as do his figures' misaligned eyes and woeful expressions. But make sure not to miss the truly singular portraiture of Phil Blank. He just wrapped a solo show at Ashley last month, but two works remain for the "Phantasm" show: Ukulele Ike, an homage to the musician who was also the voice of Jiminy Cricket, and Southern Landscape, a sort of American Gothic gone wrong.

Reception Fri., Nov. 7, 7-10 p.m. Exhibition runs through Nov. 30, 718 N. Third St., 215-627-3590.

Silicon Gallery

The Philadelphia Print Collaborative presents this year's Philadelphia Invitational Portfolio, a limited edition of prints by local artists (which the public can buy at fairly reasonable prices). This year's group is especially impressive. There's Stuart Netsky's pulsing, brilliantly hued ink-jet print on handmade paper, Alice Oh's blood-red, cellular-like screen-print and Hester Stinnett's wintry, ice-blue rumination on January. Emily Brown, who has a solo show at Gallery Joe through December, has a lithograph here -- a quiet winter scene called An Early Thaw. Rochelle Toner, James Brantley and Enid Mark are also well-represented in the portfolio.

Reception Fri., Nov. 7, 6-8 p.m. Exhibition runs through Nov. 29, 139 N. Third St., 215-238-6062.

And Then There's ...

Philadelphia Folklore Project's offices have an exhibit of historical photographs and contextual materials called "Plenty of Good Women Dancers" that honors the often forgotten (and on film, rarely credited) local African-American female tap dancers from the 1930s and '40s. Call for an appointment. Through Jan. 30, 1304 Wharton St., 215-468-7871. … DJ/sculptor/painter Billy Blaise Dufala gets a solo show at Space 1026 this month. His works demonstrate mechanics you never thought were necessary, or what he's called "things people know but nobody talks about." Reception Fri., Nov. 7, 7 p.m. Exhibition runs through Nov. 28, 1026 Arch St., second floor, 215-574-7630. … There's still time to catch Basekamp's "Wild West" show, featuring the work of German, Norwegian and American artists contemplating the allure of the old West for all cultures. The show covers everything from the German writer Karl May's fictional Apache hero to Western movies shot in Europe. Through Dec. 12, 723 Chestnut St., second floor, 215-206-8176.

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